Alannah Currie


I arrived in London in 1977, lured by the vague promise of revolution. The combination of punk attitude and a new feminist ideology was overwhelmingly seductive. London was dirty and I was constantly cold and broke, but it was hugely exciting and as far away as I could get from the suffocating suburban life of Mount Roskill and the expectations of my family.

Music was not my first love, and I had no plans to be in a band. I had trained as a journalist, though I dreamed of being a poet. I was 19 years old and looking to invent a new world to inhabit. I lived in squats in South London, worked as a waitress, tried to join the Anarchist Party, read books about the mass psychology of fascism and tactical warfare, made skirts out of rags and chicken bones, wrote surreal poetry, and took to wearing enormous Chinese hats with red rubber boots.

Side Kicks: The Thompson Twins, early 1983. From left, Alannah Currie, Tom Bailey, Joe Leeway. 
Photo credit: Simon Grigg / Rip It Up Archive
The Thompson Twins 1984 album, 'Into the Gap' (Arista). It reached No.1 in the UK and New Zealand charts. 
Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
Publicity blurb for the Thompson Twins: an advertisement in Rip It Up, January 1986. 
An advertisement from Rip It Up, January 1983, for the Thompson Twins' imminent New Zealand tour. 
Alannah Currie, back in New Zealand, early 2000s. 
Babble, 1994. From left: Tom Bailey, Keith Fernley, Alannah Currie.
Photo credit: Chris Taylor/Reprise
Thompson Twins - Lay Your Hands On Me
Joe Leeway, Tom Bailey, and Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins, January 1983: a promo pic for their Arista album Side Kicks.  
Babble, 1996: Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie
Photo credit: Melanie Bridge/Reprise
Alannah Currie doing promotion at the height of The Thompson Twins' fame, mid-1980s. 
Photo credit: Ian Chapman Collection
Thompson Twins - King For A Day
Bob Dylan and Tom Petty take second place to Alannah Currie on the cover of the January 1986 Rip It Up. 
The Thompson Twins in 1982: an Arista publicity photo at the time of their single In the Name of Love; Alannah Currie on the far right
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection

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